


Innocent Always

by tricksterity



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Sirius Lives, post-OotP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tricksterity/pseuds/tricksterity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU in which Sirius didn't die at the Ministry and is consequently facing a trial which could finally free him. Everybody waits anxiously outside for the result.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocent Always

The hallway seems to be deathly silent, yet filled with an inaudible but tangible buzz of rampant thoughts. Harry is sitting down on a hard wooden bench, his backside going slightly numb along with the dull pain in his tailbone; to his right Hermione sits while she wrings her hands and Ron is on his left, staring off into nothing.

It’s Sirius’ hearing, finally, it only took proof of Voldemort’s existence and his presence with the Order that convinced Fudge that something might be wrong. Everyone offered to testify for him, yet only Dumbledore was able to speak before the Wizengamot, leaving everybody to wait outside. Harry did, however, contribute a memory that Dumbledore taught him to extract over his pensieve, as well memories from Professor Lupin, Ron and Hermione, who had all been present on the night of Wormtail’s reveal.

Professor Lupin was the only person who was moving, not in a stunned silence like everyone else. He was pacing up and down the lacquered floors which must have had some silencing spell placed onto them, because not a sound could be heard from those pacing feet. He had his palms placed together, his fingertips touching his nose as though he were praying, although Harry knew that he wasn’t religious in the slightest – not many wizards were, strangely. 

Sirius Black’s trial was supposed to be kept a secret, but word somehow got out – Mundungus most likely – and the press from every single wizarding newspaper and magazine, especially the Prophet were waiting outside in the Ministry’s main lobby, forbidden to enter the lower levels. Molly Weasley had fretted for days when the first articles advertising the trial had come out, and even Arthur Weasley wasn’t able to find any words to comfort her – the two were sitting opposite Harry, next to Professor McGonagall and Mad-Eye Moody. Harry was sure that Moody would have some trick up his sleeve if Sirius were prosecuted.

It wouldn’t be possible for Sirius to _be_ prosecuted though, Hermione argued, as four witnesses with matching memories of the event in which Pettigrew was revealed was apparently irrefutable evidence. Nevertheless, the hallway was filled with fretting, worried and vaguely bored looking faces, none more so than Professor Lupin. An hour earlier, it sounded as though McGonagall was going to tell him off for pacing, but thought better of that and let him worry by himself.

The door was thick, black and soundproof – nothing could be heard from inside even though there was bound to be an uproar at some point with such a controversial trial and evidence. Dumbledore had given them all a comforting smile before the doors had shut though, and Harry knew that he would defend Sirius to his best ability, and judging from the way he’d argued at Harry’s trial, there was only the smallest doubt in Harry’s mind that he would lose the case.

There was a sudden shuffling noise beyond the door, and everyone in the hallway immediately rose to their feet as though pulled upwards by the Imperius curse. Some murmuring could be heard, then the door wobbled and finally opened, revealing Sirius standing next to Dumbledore. Sirius’ head was bowed and the atmosphere was somber, neat hair cascading around his face and obscuring most of it from view. He walked forward a few steps, everybody was collectively holding their breath that created a space almost like a vacuum. Harry could feel his heart beating and his hands shaking, and he could almost hear the unevenness in Hermione’s breathing next to him. Sirius raised his head, looked at Lupin, and smiled.

“Free of all charges,” he announced, and it took a few stunned seconds before it really registered to everyone. Harry found himself cheering and clapping with the rest of the Order in the hallway, and Lupin dragged Sirius into an intimate embrace, arms wrapped so tightly around each other it looked as though they’d asphyxiate. Lupin pulled back and smiled brilliantly at Sirius, hands on either side of the former convict’s face.

“Knew you could do it,” Lupin said warmly. 

“I had something worth fighting for,” Sirius said quietly, and Harry was quite sure he wasn’t supposed to be hearing this conversation over the kerfuffle in the hallway. He was surprised at the revelation as Lupin pressed a gentle kiss to Sirius’ forehead, and the two Marauders couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Dumbledore clapped a hand to Sirius’ back and twinkled down at him.

“Congratulations, Sirius, you’re a free man.” Sirius smiled back at him and wrapped an arm around Lupin’s waist, taking a deep breath as he prepared to face the press outside, and Harry vaguely felt tears on his face as he realized that his godfather was finally _free_.


End file.
